This invention relates to flexible manufacturing systems and methods which facilitate reconfiguration or relocation of machinery in an assembly plant or manufacturing facility. In particular, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a flexible infrastructure for a military airframe assembly facility, although it will of course be appreciated that the system and methods will find broad application elsewhere.
A typical conventional aircraft assembly area is very inflexible, with jigs bolted down to the concrete floor and set level before being plumbed into the required services. The base of the jigs and the surrounding area are then boxed-in with plywood to remove trip hazards and to restore a level uncluttered working environment. This means that to move a jig at a later stage, carpenters are required to dismantle the plywood boxing-in, qualified tradesmen are required to disconnect the services, and toolmakers then physically move the jig and level it in its new destination prior to reconnecting the services and re-installing the plywood boxing-in. The cost and disruption entailed in this sequence of events means that only in exceptional cases are major tools ever moved. Significant improvements may be achieved by routing the required services into the assembly area via a network of service trenches and employing quick release couplings which do not require qualified personnel for connection/disconnection. This method does not however deliver total. flexibility as jigs must either straddle the service trenches or some degree of boxing-in of trailing services must be tolerated.
Prior art systems, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,196 (Yoshida et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,437 (Heather), disclose flooring where tiles are supported on support elements with spaces between the support elements being used for fitting cables, etc.
However, the systems disclosed in these patents are light weight and would not be suitable for use in an industrial environment. Furthermore, these systems have no provision for the support elements being adapted to allow a substantial piece of equipment to be fixed thereto and then to be easily removed and relocated to another position on the floor. In these systems, the floor tiles carry a significant proportion of the weight of any associated equipment.
In one aspect of this invention there is provided a flexible manufacturing system for allowing relocation of machinery or equipment in a manufacturing or assembly facility or the like, said flexible manufacturing system comprising:
an array of pedestals attached to a base floor region; and
an array of floor panel elements disposed between said pedestals and defining a raised floor area,
wherein said pedestals are adapted in their upper regions to cooperate in use with corresponding lower load bearing regions of said machinery or equipment, whereby in use the facility may be reconfigured by moving an item of machinery or equipment supported by one set of said pedestals to a different location to be supported by a different set of said pedestals.
The pedestals are preferably disposed in a regular array, such as rectangular or square. Each of said pedestals preferably defines a datum region for co-operation with a lower load-bearing region of said machinery, and the datum regions are preferably located in a common generally horizontal plane. Each of said datum regions preferably defines a datum surface with an adjacent rebated portion for supporting a portion of an adjacent floor panel element, whereby the datum surface is generally continuous with said floor surface, or just below said floor surface, and protected by a cover. At least some of said pedestals preferably include height adjustment means to allow the height thereof to be adjusted during initial setting of the support means on the base floor region.
Said pedestals may be formed of any suitable material but preferably are formed at least partially of cast iron or an alloy thereof. The void between said base floor region and said floor surface preferably accommodates a plurality of service cables, conduits or the like. Preferably at least some of said cables, conduits or the like include releasable connection means at or adjacent said support elements for co-operating with respective connector means associated with said machinery. The floor panel elements may be formed of any suitable material but may typically comprise a wooden layer and a lower metal cladding layer. The mass of the machinery or equipment may be supported substantially wholly by the pedestals.
In another aspect of this invention there is provided a floor support system comprising:
an array of pedestals attached to a base floor region; and
an array of floor panel elements disposed between said pedestals and defining a raised floor area,
wherein said pedestals are adapted in their upper regions to cooperate in use with the corresponding lower load bearing regions of said machinery or equipment.
Preferably, the support elements are disposed in a regular square array. The equipment used may have lower load bearing regions including plug-in base parts to fit into the upper regions of the pedestals. The mass of the machinery or equipment may be supported substantially wholly by the pedestals.
Whilst the invention has been described above it extends to any novel combination of the features set out above or in the following description.